Stonemouth by Iain Banks

Stonemouth is a large fictional estuary town on the coast of
Aberdeenshire,
somewhere north of Aberdeen
and south of Peterhead. It
is Stewart Gilmour's home town, and he is back to attend the funeral of Joe
Murston, the patriach of one of the two families of gangsters who run the town
and who between them maintain the sort of law and order that might not seem out
of place in a spaghetti western. Stewart has a history with the Murston clan.
He came to know Joe through their shared love of hillwalking, and later found
other reasons to become almost part of the family. Only everything went badly
wrong one night five years previously, and Stewart had to leave town in a hurry
by jumping a freight train and heading for a new life in London.

He has not been back since, and has good reason to be concerned that
his return might not be well received by the Murstons and by others. Most of
the action in "Stonemouth" takes place over the long weekend leading up to Joe
Murston's funeral, as Stewart recounts the events of the present and weaves
them into those of the past. As the day of the funeral approaches the tension
steadily mounts, and the reader is left enjoying a very well crafted journey
without ever quite knowing where it is leading. How much of the mess that
Stewart made of his life five years ago is he going to be able to come to terms
with? And will the Murstons really let him leave town with old stories
unfinished and old scores left unsettled?

It is perhaps no surprise that author Iain Banks chose to invent a
setting for this compelling and thoroughly entertaining novel. No Scottish town
would have thanked him for being used as its setting. Yet, having invented a
backdrop, he does a great job of giving it a sense of reality, and he then
peoples it with a fascinating cast. Stewart himself is an engaging central
character, and his old friends, flames and drinking companions are brought to
life in a thoroughly convincing way. Meanwhile, the Murstons convey just the
right sense of barely suppressed menace that seems ever present as Stewart
tries to disentangle past events and relationships.